Chase Headley set some goals for himself before the start of the season.

“Fifteen homers and 75 RBI, that’s where I started with my initial goals,” Headley said Saturday night.

Bud Black set a slightly higher target for his third baseman. “Twenty (homers) and 80 to 100 RBI,” said the Padres manager.

Given the fact that Headley’s career highs were 12 homers and 64 RBI, the preseason goals seemed possible – although Headley had only four homers and 44 RBI last season.

No one, however, expected Headley to hit 30 homers and drive in 112 runs – figures he reached Saturday evening while helping power the Padres to a 7-3 victory over the National League West champion San Francisco Giants before a sellout crowd of 42,397 at Petco Park.

“Thirty is exciting,” Headley admitted after his 428-foot, two-run drive off Giants left-handed starter Madison Bumgarner sailed far beyond the 401-foot sign in left-center – giving the Padres the lead at 4-3. “It feels better to come in a win.”

Headley was far from the Padres only contributor in a win that snapped a three-game losing streak.

--Eric Stults picked up his eighth win as a Padre by holding the Giants scoreless on four hits over his final five innings after surrendering a three-run homer to Hunter Pence in the first. The Padres are 10-4 in Stults’ 14 starts.

--Left fielder Jesus Guzman and catcher Yasmani Grandal each had two RBI and contributed run-scoring hits in the Padres two-run fifth. Guzman’s first RBI came on his ninth homer just two hitters after Headley’s blast. Chris Denorfia went 3-for-4 and scored two runs.

--And center fielder Cameron Maybin made two highlight-reel catches – leaping above the fence in center in the first to rob former Padre Xavier Nady of a homer (on the first pitch after Pence’s homer) that would have made it 4-0, then charging in to make a diving catch of a sinking Brandon Belt liner in the ninth.

In fact, Black and Stults thought Maybin’s catch in the first might have played a bigger role in the final outcome than Headley’s homer.

“Cameron’s catch was one of the top 10 plays in baseball this season,” said Stults. “Who knows, back-to-back homers there could end up being five or six runs in the inning. It was one of those catches that stops the bleeding.”

“I thought the momentum changed a bit with that catch,” said Black. “And I told Cameron that several times during the game.”

“I got a really good read,” Maybin said of the Nady catch. “I got my steps going to the wall right. I thought it was a huge play. The Giants were standing at the top of their dugout ready to celebrate.”

Two innings later, it was the Padres congratulating Headley for reaching the 30-homer milestone.

Headley became the 18th Padre in the 43-season history of the franchise to hit 30 homers in a season – and only the fourth to reach the mark since Petco Park opened in 2004. As for the RBI, 112 is the eighth-highest, single-season mark in franchise history.

“This has been a great year for Chase,” said Black. “He is in a good place mentally, physically and with his swing. He’s matured before our eyes.”

Headley is having a career season. Actually, he is have a season that almost matches the first four seasons of his career.

Over the first 529 games and 1,883 at-bats of his career, Headley he hit 36 homers and drove in 204 runs. In 157 games and 590 at-bats this season, Headley has 30 homers and 112 RBI.

Before this season, Headley hit a homer every 52.3 at-bats and drove in a run every 9.25 at-bats. This season, he has homered once every 19.6 at-bats and drove in a run once every 5.25 at-bats.